![\"\"](\"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170207_horses_to_LakeO_to_LaBelle-12-300x178.jpg\")
Lake Okeechobee is a surprisingly big body of water. The trip across is about 22 nautical miles, with a few sections being out of sight of land for a few minutes. Usually it is a calm, easy crossing. Sometimes it isn’t so easy. We have seen six foot waves that broke over the bow of the boat and into the dinghy – especially scary to us since there are no other boats around and we are well out of cell phone range.<\/p>\n
This year it was peaceful with a light breeze, lots of birds, and no real wave.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170207_horses_to_LakeO_to_LaBelle-7-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170207_horses_to_LakeO_to_LaBelle-5-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nLake Okeechobee is surrounded in many areas with a man-made rim route. This canal permits travel when the wind and waves condition makes the lake to rough for boats like ours.<\/p>\n
After crossing the main body of the lake, we entered the rim route at Clewiston. ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170207_horses_to_LakeO_to_LaBelle-8-150x150.jpg\")
Clewiston is protected by a lock, normally open, that is used when high water threatens the town. This year the protection lock was open. \u00a0Last year it was closed since bad weather was threatening.<\/p>\n
Just after Clewiston![\"\"](\"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170207_horses_to_LakeO_to_LaBelle-9-1-150x150.jpg\")
there is a lovely miles-long park on the land side of the rim route. We frequently see picnic couples, bicycle riders, and hikers walking along the waters. We admire them, they admire us.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170207_horses_to_LakeO_to_LaBelle-10-1-150x150.jpg\")
The main leg of the rim route ends at Moore Haven where a lock begins the process of dropping the water from the lake back to sea level in the Gulf. This stretch of the lake’s rim is home to a number of Manatees who winter over in the relatively warm lake waters and travel North toward Kissimmee for the cooler and cleaner waters in the warmer weather.<\/p>\n
Moore Haven was a major sugar terminal during the pre-train era. The city is quieter now with several sections showing signs of a ghost ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170207_horses_to_LakeO_to_LaBelle-11-1-150x150.jpg\")
town and no real tourist industry to pick up the slack.<\/p>\n
The major attraction for us is the lock. This marks the end of the open water portion of the trip and the beginning of the true South part of Florida.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170207_horses_to_LakeO_to_LaBelle-12-1-300x178.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
There is typically a several feet drop in the Moore Haven lock. Locking through is one of the more interesting parts of traveling across Florida by boat.<\/p>\n
LaBelle is a lovely town that is well on its way toward adapting from sugar to tourists. They provide a free dock with electricity, water, and police protection, a library with Wi-Fi and books (remember them), and several places to enjoy dinner and a long walk in a nice town.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
We choose the Goose Island Forrey Grill for dinner. If you happen to be in LaBelle, stop in – you will enjoy the dinner.<\/p>\n
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There were horses grazing at the side of the waterway during this leg of the trip. It is hard to imagine what a horse thinks about when they are busy eating all day. But I suppose at least a few of them think about how lucky they are to be in this place at this time.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170207_horses_to_LakeO_to_LaBelle-1-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lake Okeechobee is a surprisingly big body of water. The trip across is about 22 nautical miles, with a few sections being out of sight of land for a few minutes. Usually it is a calm, easy crossing. Sometimes it isn’t so easy. We have seen six foot waves that broke over the bow of … Continue reading February 7: Cross Lake Okeechobee to LaBelle – visit the Horses<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1078,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-933","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7474,"href":"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/933\/revisions\/7474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shearwater-sailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}